We had the opportunity to visit Warden Optometry in Markham this past December right after exams. Just coming off of dispensing a pair of glasses to her final patient of the day, Dr. Liang invited us into her office from the cold, treated us to some takeout, showed us around her office, and welcomed any questions we had for her.

With the multitude of questions asked, our conversations covered a variety of topics; from how Dr. Liang decided it was time to open her own practice, to how she built her practice in Markham, as well as her plans to grow and improve her practice. Over the course of the night, Dr. Liang also shared her experiences of what it was like to practice in another province, her thoughts on when it would be a good time to start a family, and gave us her two-cents on the importance of the location of your practice. Dr. Liang’s advice for a successful practice begins with understanding your patients’ demographic and needs and catering towards them. For herself, she finds that her fluency in speaking Chinese is an asset because her clinic is situated in an area surrounded by a large Chinese population. She also believes that to set yourself apart from other practices, you need to find your niche – to have something different to offer to your patients. For example, Dr. Liang currently fits Ortho-K lenses for myopia control and does dry eye assessments. However, she also has an interest in binocular vision and has been learning on her own by going to continuing education events to further her knowledge, as she hopes to incorporate binocular vision in her practice in the future.

Dr. Liang was a great mentor and we’re grateful for the time she took out of her busy schedule to spend with us!